'Relay' Puts Riz Ahmed & Lily James in a Thrilling Race

The Telecommunications Relay Service (commonly referred to as TRS) is likely unfamiliar to those who do not have someone in their life who is deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or has speech disabilities. The American Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has provided this program to enable individuals with disabilities to communicate via landline telephones since the early 1970s. Since the passage of the ADA in 1990, it has been available at no cost. The "relay device" is a Teletypewriter (known as a TTY), which allows the disabled party to receive written responses and respond by typing, which is then "relayed" by a communications assistant (CA) to the other party.

That system is at the heart of the new film Relay, a corporate thriller which imagines a scenario where whistleblowers call into the TRS to contact those who provide help and protection. The "fixers" (or whatever you want to call them) keep their identities completely hidden by communicating only via TTY machines, using CAs as their voices. They can do this as the FCC rules state that CAs must be unobtrusive, "relay the conversation exactly as it is received," and (most importantly) all relay calls must be confidential and protected.

Relay initially debuted in September 2024 at the Toronto International Film Festival as one of the many hopefuls in need of distribution and marketing for an awards push. However, it wasn't until mid-November that Bleeker Street announced it would acquire the film and was planning a 2025 release. The first look images and trailer are now finally out, with the film heading for an August debut.